Sandra Bromley is a Canadian artist. She is noted for her anti-war and anti-violence artwork, most notably ''Gun Sculpture'', co-created with Wallis Kendal. Her artwork has been exhibited at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and the presentation of the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

. Bromley earned her BFA in 1979 from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. In 1997, she co-founded with Kendal, a non-profit group that works with at-risk youth in Edmonton. She was inducted into the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

in 2012, receiving the Queen's Jubilee Medal the same year.

The Art of Peacemaking: The Gun Sculpture

Bromley and collaborator Wallis Kendal co-created ''The Gun Sculpture'', a five-tonne sculpture that was unveiled in Edmonton in early 2000. It was a vision of the . and took two years to build. The Canadian Millennium Bureau and the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs provided funding, as well as private donations. Composed of 7,000 deactivated weapons such as landmines, machine-guns and knives donated to the artists by Canadian and international sources, the walk-in structure resembles a prison cell. The sculpture is paired with multimedia components depicting victims of war, and crimes of violence like

domestic abuse Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. In a broader sense, abuse including nonphysical abuse in such settings is called domestic abuse. The term "domestic violence" is often use ...

. As described by a UN report on small arms, the sculpture contributes to "an understanding of the ways in which civilians including children reaffected by such weapons". Its effect is to "force us to think about violence" and "what we can do to contribute to the culture of peace." Since its debut, the work has been toured around the world including the

Expo 2000 Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially, some 40 million people were ...

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, Germany, the

Headquarters of the United Nations , image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004 (cropped).jpg , image_size = 275px , caption = View of the complex from Long Island City in 2021; from left to right: the Secretariat, Conference, and General Assembly buil ...

in New York City, the

Canadian War Museum The Canadian War Museum (CWM) () is a National museums of Canada, national museum on the military history of Canada, country's military history in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum serves as both an educational facility on Canadian military hist ...

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, and the Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Celebration in

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, South Korea.

External links

Official website of Sandra Bromley

''The Gun Sculpture''

iHuman Youth Society

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bromley, Sandra 21st-century Canadian artists 21st-century Canadian women artists Canadian anti-war activists Artists from Alberta Canadian multimedia artists Canadian sculptors University of Alberta alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts